Harry Potter and Reading the Deathly Hallows
by Hopewords
Summary: Harry Potter has just defeated Voldemort and is now attempting to gather up the unraveled ends that the war has left. What will happen when some mysterious people and a book arrive, sending them off on another mini-adventure.
1. Dealing with Guilt

**The Day After**

Harry sat up in his bed, disoriented. _What happened to the camp bed?_ Not that this one wasn't more comfortable but…_ Voldemort! _Instinctively, in one fluid motion Harry leapt to his feet, wandlessly summoned his glasses, all while groping for his wand.

"Harry!" Ginny's voice got through to him, visibly causing him to relax and to slump back into his pillows. "I'm really glad we forgot to bring your wand down with you when we took you down from the tower."

"'Lo to you too Gin" His voice was hoarse, and scratchy with disuse. "Why am I here?"

"You've been out for 3 days." Ginny's voice was strangely flat. Harry rubbed at the bandage criss-crossing his chest absently and gazed at his surroundings.

"Seriously? The Hospital Wing? Aren't there others that are injured that need it more?"

"Harry, you're suffering from malnutrition, burns, the effects from a dementor, some deep cuts, multiple bruises, magical exhaustion, and regular exhaustion. I think that just might qualify you as 'injured'" For the first time since they talked, the fiery redhead that Harry used to date shown through, causing a half smile to light up his battered appearance.

"Yeah" Harry shrugged, "but not everyone is used to it." Ginny shook her head in exasperation. Leave it to Harry to downplay everything. "Is that Ron and 'Mione?"

Ginny tore her gaze away from Harry to glance at the couple in the beds across from them. "Yes, you're the first of the 'Golden Trio' to wake up".

"WHAT! 'Golden Trio?' when did that come about"

"Oh did I forget to tell you what people have been calling you three?"

"Ginnnnyyy… you're not supposed to tease an injured person." Harry pouted, much to the red head's amusement.

"Did Ron teach you new tricks?"

Harry's offended expression was enough to send Ginny into new gales of laughter, causing Molly Weasley to smile softly. She had been listening to the whole conversation, and this had been the first time since the battle, since F-Fred died, that anyone had gotten Ginny to smile, let alone laugh.

The laughter died down and Ginny pulled her hair up into a pony tail for lack of anything else to do. Neither one of them wanted to think about the slaughter. "Why?" the word coming out sounded more heartbroken than one could believe. It was hard to believe that such a broken sound came out of Ginerva Weasley's mouth, the resilient, hard-working, never crying, boisterous red-head. "Was it really worth it? We could've done something, anything! I should have been there for him, if I was there I could've saved him, I could have protected him, I should've…"

Harry cut off her heart-broken tirade the only way he knew how. He leaned in quickly and captured her lips in a pure, sweet, mind boggling kiss. He felt Ginny relaxing into him, and broke it off to pull her down onto the bed beside him.

"Gin…" The words tumbled out of his mouth, against his will. He knew it would hurt her, but her also knew she needed to hear what he was about to say.

"You all are hypocrites. Everyone. You all tell me to get over it and not mope, and well… here everyone is." His tone was light, but his emerald gaze was fractured with pain and remorse. Ginny looked at him in surprise, her mouth hanging open in shock. "What? I'm sure you've gotten enough sympathetic words, and have gotten cuddled over enough by you lovely mother. If you want more people giving your condolences, you can go back into the Great Hall you know. I know you Gin. You need to hear this, almost want to hear it." His gaze held her steady, and Ginny sat back down in her chair, and waited for him to get to the point. She knew him as well as he knew her, and they both needed to get this off their chests, and they both believed in cutting to the quick. Holding out on each other never solved anything, especially when the two of them had such stubborn natures and fierce tempers, though it took more to get Harry enraged.

"I know what you're going through Gin. Your insides feel like they are warping inside of you, you feel like there is never enough air in the room, that your skin is too tight for your body, that nothing will ever be the same, and you know what? They won't. Fred is part of the Weasley family…"

"Was." The whisper slipped out, cutting off the lecture.

Harry shook his head and took a deep breath, Fred's absence had hit him hard, as well as Remus and Tonk's death's, but he had to make Ginny understand and come to terms with her wild emotions, just as his friends had helped him shake out of his slump after Sirius' death. "No."

"What?"

"Do you know about the Resurrection Stone? In the 3 Brothers Tale?"

Ginny nodded, not understanding where Harry was going with this.

"It's real, I'll tell you how I got it later, just hear me out right now."

Harry took a deep breath and looked Ginny in the eye, his eyes just daring her to interrupt him.

"I saw my parents last night. They said they were proud of me, that, that they that they loved me and…"

Harry broke off as his scratchy voice gave out on him and swallowed down tears, he couldn't get emotional now!

"You think that, just because we can't see him, that Fred isn't with us anymore? If my parents could see me, so can Fred. Don't you even dare say that Fred isn't part of the Weasley family because he is, and he always will be. Are my parents no longer Potters just because they happened to no longer be with us _physically_?" Harry stressed the last word, trying to get Ginny to see they point. "No! They'll always be with us, even if we can't see them."

Ginny stared at Harry for a moment before wrapping her arms around his neck and, ignoring the bandages, kissed him until they had to come up for air. "So Ginny", Harry mumbled dazed by the unexpected, but very welcome snogging. "I forgot to ask, will you be my girlfriend again?"

"Hmmmm…" Ginny pretended to think about it. "I suppose I could put up with that."

She leaned down, and whispered very softly, "On one condition."

"What?" Harry leaned back apprehensively; it was never a good sign when Ginny got all mysterious.

"Never, ever, ever break up with me again, you giant prat!"

Harry laughed long and hard after hearing that. "I think that old Voldy would've caused some serious brain damage if I ever did that again!"

"Good"

Ginny leaned down to kiss Harry, both of them completely unaware of the shocked Weasley matriarch wiping her tears away just outside the curtains.


	2. The parent's prank

I don´t own anything, JK Rowling does.

Thanks for the reviews, I'm just introducing the characters in the story right now

"James Potter! Get down here!" The tone was stern, but the sparkle in Lily Potter's eyes spoke of her amusement.

"Gotta catch us first Lils!" Sirius Black was flying above her, doing fancy tricks on the other broom.

"You know I can't fly!"

"Why do you think we are up here than?" James Potter sat just out of reach of his wife. "You're too smart for any of our pranks, this is the only way we can tease you!"

"Ohhh you two." Lily finally gave into the smile tugging at her lips, "you know if we weren't already dead, that I would've threatened bodily harm on the both of you?"

"Yup"

"Heard it all the time when we were in Hogwarts, still remember the stinging hexes after all."

Lily bit her lip and furrowed her eyebrows at the idea that popped into her head. She was dead; nothing was going to hurt her now! It was about time she acted on some of her more Gryffindor traits. Anyways, it would be nice to get another one over James and Sirius.

Sighing dramatically, Lily slowly turned around and called over her shoulder, "Well while you two make idiots out of yourselves, I'm going to go inside and check on dinner." Her auburn hair swirled around as she 'stalked' over to the house, ignoring Sirius's cheers of 'besting Lily for once' and the sound of the Qwiditch match getting started up again.

As soon as the field was out of sight Lily raced home with a gleam in her eyes, excited at the thought of once again, outwitting the infamous marauders.

"Broom shed… ok, now where is it? I know James has it around here somewhere! We were keeping it for him… Ah ha!" The former nervousness left as Lily gazed at the magnificent broom. _Harry's_ broom. "He won't need it for a good while yet." Lily's throat tightened. "Or he better not." Shaking herself out of her morbid thoughts, Lily clambered over the pile of broom cleaning supplies, clutching the Firebolt they had for Harry, and coughing at the cloud of dust she stirred up.

"With all the time James spends in here you'd think there wouldn't be all this filth." Lily siphoned off the dirt with her wand and then, her maurader mischievousness sparking once more, raced out of the shed and ran down the road to the pitch, sending flowers waving lazily in her wake.

Just before it came in sight Lily stopped abruptly, falling on her rump. "Charles, Dora!"

"Off to 'talk' with James dear?" Mrs. Potter appeared beside her husband Charles, walking down the path. The redhead blushed at being caught, but the older woman waved her on laughing, "Go and get them sweetie." Mr. Potter laughed as well and winked, saying "We'll be at the house later, you kids have fun!"

Lily flashed a brilliant grin at the two of them and jumped up, still slightly red in the cheeks. "I'll tell James after once he gets over his shock!" Then she ran off once more to the sound of soft chuckles.

Behind a pine tree the red-head stops and draws in a deep breath, trying not to panic. She never really tried flying after her disastrous first try, but this would be another way to bond with her husband, besides being a good prank. Lily closed her eyes and tried to remember what Madame Hooch said_. Place the broom on the ground and place your hand over it. _Ok, that was easy. _Now concentrate on willing the broom into your hand and say up! _Ok, that's where she got stuck on last time. "_I can't believe James was pulling my braids like that!"_ At least I can concentrate this time. Lily let out a little sigh and said, firmly, **up.** She fell down once more at the shock of the wood slapping into her hand. "I can't believe it!" Lily shook her head, a wide grin splitting her face. Now was not the time for thinking about this, now was the time for action.

Straddling the broom Lily kicked off the ground like she saw James do a thousand times. "WHOOOOOO!" What was she so afraid of? Flying was amazing! Lily let out a breathy laugh and pulled the broom handle up rising up into the sky above the troublesome duo, the wind zipping through her hair.

James was throwing the quaffle to Sirius when Lily struck. All the two saw was a flash of red before the quaffle disappeared.

"What happened?" James looked around with a cute bewildered look on his face that had Lily biting her lip to stop from giggling.

"It flew off into those trees there, I couldn't really see it clearly… could it be a bird or something?" Sirius looked even more dumbfounded than James, which was saying something.

"Hello?" James flew up cautiously to the patch of pine trees she took refuge in. "Anyone there?"

Lily couldn't help it. Letting a laugh loose she burst through the trees and captured James' lips in a kiss before he even realized who it was.

Sirius' splutters brought them back to reality, James with a goofy grin.

"Haha! I got you again!" Lily sat on her broom as if she had been doing it for years, causing both of the boy's jaws to drop.

"Lily..?"

"What happened to 'afraid of heights'?"

"On a broom…"

"You have been holding out on us!"

"I love you!"

Lily looked on bemused at their shocked spluttering, before leaning in and softly saying, "Never underestimate a woman." While she was leaning in and kissing James once more (much to Sirius' displeasure) a bright light consumed them and the disappeared.


End file.
